CD Review: Kat Larios

Tools

There’s a world of difference between trying to be an eccentric artist and innately being an eccentric artist. I believe Kat Larios to be weird-wired. Envision Tracy Chapman, Tiny Tim, and Little Jimmy Scott in some David Lynch/carny-esque scenario and you’ll have something akin to the musical side of Bathos in Aqua. This acoustic Kingstonite is a minor-chord minimalist, relying mostly on freakish warblings and lone instruments—ukelele, accordion, guitar, organ—to produce 13 hypodermic tunes with simplistic strummings and unnerving, repetitive strains. Larios’s sparsely spaced guest artists on this record include Grasshopper (Mercury Rev) on clarinet, and cellist Jane Scarpantoni (Lou Reed, REM, 10,000 Maniacs).

Related to Music

With its open-air format, where attendees picnic in the parks and watch the stars emerge during performances, and its $5 youth tickets, the Phoenicia International Festival of the Voice is the perfect place to share with children a love of music and theater, in a variety of styles.